The Only 5 Problems You Will Face As A Digital Writer
My 400 days of successes and failures as a digital writer will make you rethink your everyday strategies
When I began writing, creator economy was not a buzzword. So, I launched a blog. Phew…I fell flat.
No one reads a blog.
Okay, few might, but for that, you need to be an authoritative figure.
Thanks to Nicolas Cole’s -The Art and Business of Online Writing. I stopped blogging to writing on digital platforms after reading
To not let your ship sink, Dickie Bush talks about how not to reinvent the wheel here—
Coming back to me, I still struggle in 3/5 aspects as a creator. Let me share where I succeeded and where I failed.
Here we go →
1/ Mindset
I was a terrible writer. Even now, I am not that good. But, your case might not be like mine. You might be not as terrible as I am. Whatever may be the case,
As a beginner, you will struggle only with 2 habits:
- Getting good at writing
2. Getting good at sticking to the habit of writing
Don’t think of becoming popular. Don’t look at statistics. Don’t change your heart frequently. All will lead to frustration.
Content creation is a long-term game. You need to change your mindset and attitude from a desperate writer to a patient writer.
Resources that can help you with the basics:
- Make Me An Idea Factory — by Aniket Shashikant Saraf
- The Art and Business of Online Writing — by Nicolas Cole
2/ Scaling
There are 2 ways you can think about scaling:
- External — How much is your market worth
- Internal — How much is your hidden worth
External Scaling
Mistakes I made
- Attacked all platforms — Medium, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube
- Continued with many niches — Too many to fit in the next 3 lines
When you work on too many platforms you disperse your energy. At the end of the day, you feel fatigued and reach only an inch ahead.
Think like this:
If you do marketing, sales, HR, and manufacturing, all on your own, will you be able to lead your company?
Your job as a CEO is to set direction.
Now, think of the product. Will it reach the desired audience?
Top writers who share success tips say that your audience should only be 1 person. If you are able to sell to 1, you will be able to sell to many more later.
If your target audience is only 1 person, think about how much will that person will expect from you. Will she expect that you provide groceries, medicines, and utensils, all from one company? No, she expects authority. She expects that she get the best product from each reputed brand.
What brand you are in the making?
Leave the rest of your hustle and focus only on 3 RELATABLE Niches.
Get good on 1–3 platforms → Focus on 1 platform and repurpose on the other 2.
Internal Scaling
Although I didn’t scale outward, I continued learning, creating, and absorbing as much as I could.
I built systems, a knowledge bank, and learned platform hacks. I also read about my niche and systematized my idea factory.
When you feel fatigued about external scaling, many a time you will, do this:
a) Build Systems
- Your routine is a system
- Your diet plan is a system
- Your content calendar is a system
- Your learning methodology is a system
- Your idea capturing method is a system
- Your way to approach a prospect is a system
- Your writing method on a particular platform is a system
Humans are lazy creatures. Our brains don’t like decision-making. You can evade excess thinking by creating a system.
A system makes you productive. Systems help you maintain your hormonal balance.
b) Follow 3x Framework
3x Framework is a system.
It is a tested way to grow with an average rate just like the NASDAQ which averages the growth of top stocks.
You can always manipulate levers wherever you feel necessary changes.
c) Learn from people who’ve already achieved what you want to accomplish
Although w.r.t 3x mindset, you are told to invest 3 hours in learning each week, don’t restrict your learning when you get an urge to learn.
Learn what is relevant.
Approach →
Buy 3 Relevant Books in the aspect you want to grow to →Chew them
Follow 3 Relevant People on Twitter →and Dissect them
Apply what you learned.
3/ Building an audience
Target Audience
There is too much noise on every platform. You are not competing with the creators of your niche, but with porn, Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube, etc
You cannot aspire to get success by publishing 1 viral article. You need to think — What should I do to make my audience come back again.
Ask: What value do I bring to the table?
Once you hack your target audience, rephrase the same content in alternate ways. Read Tim Denning.
Target Platform
I will likely follow people on all the platforms I use whom I follow and engage with on one platform for a long time.
I admire Tim Denning’s writing on Medium. When I found him on LinkedIn and Twitter, I followed him without friction.
What is your moat? — Is it writing articles? posts? images? videos?
Focus on your prime moat and for now, create content in that domain only. Later you can repurpose it.
Target Niche
Target 1 person → Add value+Impress+Entertain →Scale
When we talk about a single person, rarely someone(that 1 person) tries to improve in every aspect of life all at once. No one I’ve heard of does that.
In line with this, you should not talk/write/create on many topics all at once.
Approach → Focus on 3 Relatable niche
When you work on more than 3 niches, you make it hard for your niche audience to find you. Moreover, you load yourself with psychological pressure.
To show up every single day, you need to research, create, and curate each day. Don’t overload yourself with the cumbersome task of manufacturing irrelevant content. Remember — Chasing all is like chasing none.
Rented Audience v/s Owned Audience
The audience you’ll discover on any platform will be a rented audience.
Do this from today — Learn marketing and copywriting. This will help you copy-paste your rented audience to your owned audience.
Email capture is the best way to own an audience. Create a product that can add value to your target audience. Make as much noise wherever possible to let your audience know WHAT YOU DO and HOW THEY” LL BENEFIT FROM YOUR PRODUCT IF THEY GRAB-IT — Paid/Free
4/ Financials
If you’ve left everything behind to start afresh as a digital writer, and you are not able to make a minimum wage, you should reconsider your Default State.
What’s your doomsday protocol?
The financial burden can divert your attention towards unnecessary stress.
Ask yourself these fundamental questions:
- What is the outcome of what I am creating?
2. What value am I providing and does the market need it?
3. How I am going to sustain myself as a creator?
In the startup ecosystem, A Fatal Pinch is a state when a startup will run out of money before making any profit+not growing + the team finds no time to fix the mess.
This also applies to solopreneurs. If you are in such a state, start working on an alternate strategy — viz plan B.
Questions you need to ask:
- What I’ll need to do to survive if you can’t make money
And
2. When I’ll need to switch to plan B if plan A is not yielding
The good news is, unlike startups, you can live far below your means.
If you are getting constant frustration bombs, but you still want to be persistent, find a place where you need to worry about financials — A small town to live in, a volunteering opportunity via Workaway, or an ashram that will support you in return for seva, or your own family home.
You can also take up a job that will keep lifting financial weight for the next few months till you go underground and come up with a phenomenal irresistible digital product!
Why all these hustles? — Well-being first.
5/ Well-being
In long term, it is deemed that you will amass a great fortune. But, it is uncertain that you will have great functioning life forces.
Many people make a serious mistakes. They go behind one desire by sacrificing everything else — Health, relationships, mental stability.
Each topic is worth a book. Let me simplify all for you.
Health
- Diet — Eat a clean diet that will fill 80% of your stomach
- Rest — Do not overwork, sleep 7–8 hours
- Fitness — Alternate day:1 hour cardio / 1-hour strength
- Posture — Invest and practice Perfect Desktop Posture. Take intermediate breaks after every 45 minutes
- Mental Relief — Meditate, breathe well, do yoga, take vacations
Thoughts
- Disarm your addictive habits— Looking at statistics, porn, and negative thought loops. Replace them with meditation/music/walk. Read Atomic Habits by James Clear to understand how to build and break habits.
- Solopreneurship is a lonely profession. We are not evolved to stay lonely. Go out to meet new people. Socialize — Work with an NGO, and join a cause. This small investment will not hamper your work progress but will inspire you and keep you proactive.
Relationships
- Family — Meet your loved ones often
- Friends — At least call one each week
- Collaborations — Reserve a half-day each week to build meaningful connections on the web
Happiness
- Reward yourself at the end of the workday
- Dance/play an instrument/read a novel/watch a movie/play a sport/go for an outing
I am still improving in scaling, financials, and well-being. What I’ve written on these topics is what I felt and learned to be right.
You might feel that all of this is generic advice but there is beauty in simplicity. When you find happiness in everything you do, your well-being is taken care of by cosmic energy.
And yes — Be a badass among people but be humble before nature.